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38-660: In 1962, the Nigerian Tourist Association was established, without regulatory authorities. In 1976, the Supreme Military Council ruling the country issued Decree No. 54 that created the Nigeria Tourism Board, the country’s first tourism regulatory body. The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation was established in 1992 by Decree No. 81. The National Council on Commerce and Tourism was also created and entrusted with

76-565: A close friend of Gowon's, announced on Radio Nigeria that he and other officers had decided to remove Gowon as head of state and commander-in-chief. The coup was bloodless: Gowon was abroad, attending a meeting of the Organisation of African Unity in Kampala . He was replaced by Brigadier Murtala Muhammed , with Brigadier Olusegun Obasanjo installed as deputy head of state. The New York Times reported that General Hassan Katsina ,

114-470: A former Chief of Army Staff who had been demoted by Gowon, was said to be "the real author of the coup". On 1 October, Muhammed, like Gowon, pledged a return to civilian rule: following the drafting of a new constitution and various institutional changes, elections would be held, allowing for a transfer of power on 1 October 1979. On 13 February 1976, Muhammed was assassinated at the outset of an abortive coup attempt. His driver and aide were also killed; as

152-528: A seemingly permanent feature of Nigerian politics." The abundance of natural resources have also been cited as a reason for the prevalence of military coups in Nigeria's history. The regional rivalries which have played such a large part in recurrence of coups were a result of colonialism creating an artificial state encompassing several different distinct ethnic groups. These distinct ethnic groups were represented by regional parties, which ensured that "none of

190-809: The Northern Region into the East . In response to the killings some northerners were massacred in Port Harcourt and other eastern cities. These events led to the secession of the eastern Nigerian region and the declaration of the Republic of Biafra , which ultimately led to the Nigeria-Biafra war . The events took place in the context of military coups d'etat and in the prelude to the Nigerian Civil War. The immediate precursor to

228-591: The Igbo dominated Eastern Nigeria. Thousands of Hausas, Tiv and other Northern Tribes were massacred by Igbo mobs, forcing a mass exodus of Northerners from the Eastern Region. Non-Igbo Eastern minorities and Midwesterners in the North were also attacked as there were no ways to differentiate them from Igbos by appearance, who were all collectively known by the name " Yameri " in the North. One factor that led to

266-696: The North to react in this way. Later tactics were engineered by Northern elites to provoke violence such as fabricated news stories submitted to radio Cotonou and relayed by the Hausa service of the BBC detailing exaggerated attacks against Northerners in the East, which led to the furious killings of Eastern Nigerians on 29 September 1966. According to British newspaper reports at the time, about 30,000 Igbo were killed in September 1966, while more conservative estimates put

304-616: The North, the intention of a large portion of the Nigerian army at the time was genocidal as was the common racist rhetoric among Hausa tribes. With the exception of a few Northern Nigerians (mainly army officers who were not convinced that Igbo were innately evil), the Southern and Eastern Nigerians were generally regarded at the time in the North of Nigeria as described by Charles Keil: The Igbo and their ilk...vermin and snakes to trod underfoot...dogs to be killed. Ethnic rivalries in

342-523: The anger at the way Igbo traders (and journalists) were mocking their Hausa fellow traders in Zaria’s Sabon Gari over the death of their ‘father’, and were pushing aside various motorpark workers elsewhere, telling the Hausa that the rules had now all changed and it was the Hausa who were now the underlings in market or motorpark. Hearing the Hausa men tell among themselves each evening of the insults they had heard from Igbos that day showed me vividly how

380-477: The beginning of a Third Nigerian Republic . In September 1994, although he had pledged to restore democracy, Abacha issued a decree that placed his government above the jurisdiction of the courts, effectively giving him absolute power. In recent decades, there have been several high-profile arrests in connection with alleged coup plots: According to Nigerian historian Max Siollun , "Military coups and military rule (which began as an emergency aberration) became

418-513: The casualties at a floor of 10,000 with as many as 30,000 for the month of September alone. This spree of killings carried on into early October and was carried out by civilians sometimes aided by army troops and swept the entire north. It has been described as the most painful and provocative incident leading to the Nigeria-Biafra War . The pogroms led to the mass movement of Igbo and other Eastern Nigerians back to Eastern Nigeria (it

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456-399: The coordination of the planning and development of tourism. The Minister of Commerce and Tourism chaired the council, in which state commissioners for commerce and tourism, representatives of travel agents , hoteliers and catering associations, tour operators , and various airlines were represented. After the country's transition to civil government, in 1999, the new Constitution limited

494-482: The country, saying that Buhari's regime had been "rigid and uncompromising" and had demonstrated "inconsistency and incompetence". On 22 April 1990, military officers led by Major Gideon Orkar attacked Dodan Barracks in an attempt to overthrow Babangida's administration. Babangida escaped successfully, and fighting stopped ten hours later, when senior military commanders elsewhere in the country announced their support for Babangida. 42 men convicted of involvement in

532-532: The country. In a response action Northern officers carried out the July 1966 Nigerian counter-coup in which 240 Southern members of the army were systematically killed, three-quarters of them Igbo, as well as thousands of civilians of southern origin living in the north. In the aftermath, Yakubu Gowon , a northerner, assumed command of the military government. In this background, increased ethnic rivalries led to further massacres. The massacres were widely spread in

570-452: The coup attempt were executed by firing squad in July 1990. Facing pressure to shift towards a democratic government, Babangida resigned and appointed Ernest Shonekan as interim president on 26 August 1993. Shonekan's transitional administration lasted only three months: on 17 November 1993, it was overthrown in a palace coup led by General Sani Abacha . This followed the annulment of the presidential elections which had been advertised as

608-558: The coup had been led by Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suka Dimka and had aimed at restoring Gowon's regime. 125 people were arrested in connection with the coup attempt and, in March, 32 people received death sentences, among them Dimka and the defence minister, Major General Illiya D. Bisalla . On 31 December 1983, a group of senior military officers led a coup which ended the Second Nigerian Republic . The coup deposed

646-415: The coup in the north. Aguiyi-Ironsi then assumed power, forcing the civilian government to cede authority. He established a military government led by himself as supreme commander. In the months following the coup, it was widely noted that four of the five army majors who executed the coup were Igbo and that the general in charge was also Igbo. Northerners feared that the Igbo had set out to take control of

684-472: The date on which civilian rule would be restored. On 29 July 1966, a counter-coup commenced, and Ironsi's regime had fallen by 1 August. Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon became head of state. Ironsi and the governor of the Western Region, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi , were among the casualties. Muhammadu Buhari , who was himself installed as head of state in the 1983 coup, was one of

722-584: The death of their leader the Sardauna of Sokoto on the large number of Igbo who live in the North", which at the time they were not doing. This has been criticized as an irresponsible and for a journalist unprofessional, self-fulfilling prophecy which would lead the Northern elite to assume that the Financial Times was in possession of information that they were not aware of, and that the world expected

760-502: The democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari , which, in the first military broadcast after the coup, Brigadier Sani Abacha called "inept and corrupt". Abacha, who was himself appointed head of state a decade later, was said to have played "a key role" in the coup. The sole reported casualty occurred when Brigadier Ibrahim Bako was killed in a fire fight during Shagari's arrest in Abuja . Major General Muhammed Buhari

798-494: The four highest-ranking northern military officers. The coup leaders publicly pledged to eliminate corruption, suppress violence, and hold new elections. Major General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi , also an Igbo but not party to the original conspiracy, intervened to impose discipline on the military and became head of state. He suspended the constitution, dissolved all legislative parties, banned political parties, and formed an interim federal military government, though without specifying

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836-608: The hostility toward Southern Nigerians in general and Igbo in particular was the attempt by the Aguiyi Ironsi regime to abolish regionalisation in favor of a unitary system of government which was regarded as a plot to establish Igbo domination in the Federation. On 24 May 1966 Ironsi issued a unitary decree, which led to an explosion of attacks against the Igbo in Northern Nigeria on 29 May 1966. The British press

874-547: The initial relief at the coup had transformed into fury. It worried me little at the time (living safely in the centre of Zaria city) but I was naive enough not to expect serious violence. That I only witnessed later when for example, in April 1966, I was in Jalingo: there, one Sunday afternoon, I was formally warned killing was to happen. I was told I must leave town before nightfall. Northern Nigerians were however also targeted in

912-523: The marketplace might have also influenced the pogrom, especially after the first coup. Professor Murray Last , a scholar and historian living in the city of Zaria at the time, recounts his experience: And the day after the coup – January 16th 1966 – there was initially so much open relief on the ABU campus that it shocked me. It was only later, when I was living within Zaria city (at Babban Dodo), that I encountered

950-624: The massacres was the January 1966 Nigerian coup d'etat . Most of the politicians and senior army officers killed by them were northerners because Northerners were the majority in Nigeria's government, including Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto . The coup was opposed by other senior army officers. An Igbo officer, Aguiyi-Ironsi stopped the coup in Lagos while another Igbo officer, Emeka Ojukwu stopped

988-671: The most recent coup occurred in 1993, and there have been no significant further attempts under the Fourth Republic , which restored multi-party democracy in 1999. On 15 January 1966, a group of young military officers overthrew Nigeria's government, ending the short-lived First Nigerian Republic . The officers who staged the coup were mostly young soldiers , led by Kaduna Nzeogwu , and they assassinated several northerners, including Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa , Northern Region Premier Ahmadu Bello , Western Region Premier Ladoke Akintola , finance minister Festus Okotie-Eboh , and

1026-516: The north and peaked on 29 May, 29 July, and 29 September 1966. By the time the pogrom ended, virtually all Igbos of the North were dead, hiding among sympathetic Northerners or on their way to the Eastern region. The massacres were led by the Nigerian Army and replicated in various Northern Nigerian cities. Although Colonel Gowon was issuing guarantees of safety to Southern Nigerians living in

1064-667: The officers involved. Both the coup and the counter-coup assumed an "ethnic colouration" and they fuelled ethnic violence , contributing to events which ultimately led to the Nigerian civil war . After the end of the war, in October 1970, Gowon reiterated an earlier pledge to ensure that military rule would be terminated on 1 October 1976. In 1974, however, he postponed democratisation, explaining that Nigerians had not yet demonstrated "moderation and self-control in pursuing sectional ends". On 29 July 1975, Colonel Joseph Nanven Garba ,

1102-509: The parties could govern Nigeria on its own, and… that conflict was only a matter of time away." Therefore, there was no centralised opposition to military rule; when a coup occurred, it was therefore just another faction of military rule. The economic effects of military rule were disastrous. The traditional agricultural based economy was abandoned and they became extremely dependent on exports of oil which due to frequent fluctuations in oil prices led to an unstable economy. The Babangida regime

1140-552: The post in an "acting" capacity, Folorunsho Coker was appointed Director General in March 2017. Military coups in Nigeria Since Nigeria became independent in 1960, there have been five military coups . Between 1966 and 1999, Nigeria was ruled by a military government without interruption, apart from a short-lived return to democracy under the Second Republic of 1979 to 1983. However,

1178-589: The regulatory power of the federal government “to tourist traffic alone.” In 2017, the Nigerian Senate voted to amend the 1992 Act, in renaming the agency as the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority and, among other things, allow it to set up a tour operating company, named National Travel Bureau, that would offer services within and outside Nigeria. The act places the tour operator under "private-sector principles" in

Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-543: The sense that it "shall ensure that the revenue accruing to the Bureau from services provided by the Bureau are not less than sufficient to meet the total cost of providing these services." The department has zonal offices at Bauchi , Calabar , Kano , Lagos , Lokoja and Jos , each headed by a zonal coordinator. Sally Uwechue-Mbanefo was Director General until she was dismissed in November 2016. After three persons held

1254-537: The situation. The May 1966 pogrom was carried out by rampaging mobs with the connivance of local government. The unprofessional attitude of some elements of the international press are also known to have added to the existing tension. J.D.F. Jones, the diplomatic correspondent of the Financial Times had on 17 January 1966 already predicted that the Northerners might "already have begun to take revenge for

1292-409: Was Ibrahim Taiwo , the military governor of Kwara state. The coup was led by a group of officers who called themselves "young revolutionaries" in a radio broadcast; however, they lacked both civilian and military support. The coup was denounced by division commanders and government leaders outside Lagos and was quickly suppressed. Obasanjo became head of state. The Nigerian government reported that

1330-517: Was characterised by "gross incompetence and unbridled, waste and mismanagement, the privatisation of public office and public resources, the neglect of non-oil sectors and misplaced priorities". As a result of the military economic policy of the 1980s, 45% of foreign-exchange earnings were going into debt servicing and there was very little growth. This led to a rise in poverty, crime, child abuse, disease, institutional decay and urban dislocation. The instability and dissatisfaction caused by these policies

1368-428: Was installed as head of state. On 27 August 1985, officers led by Major General Ibrahim Babangida , the army chief of staff , usurped Buhari's government in a palace coup while Buhari himself was away from Lagos and his chief aide, Major General Tunde Idiagbon , was on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The coup was announced on the radio in the morning by Major General Joshua Dogonyaro , and Babangida later addressed

1406-459: Was one of the causes of the consistent pattern of coups. 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom A series of massacres were committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966. Between 8,000 and 30,000 Igbos and easterners have been estimated to have been killed. A further 1 million Igbos fled

1444-457: Was unanimous in its conviction at the time that these 29 May killings were organized and not spontaneous. The Ironsi regime was also perceived to have been favoring Southern Nigerians in the appointment to key positions in government, thus heightening the inter-ethnic rivalries. The failure of the Ironsi regime to execute the army mutineers responsible for the January 1966 coup further exacerbated

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